This disclosure relates to a multiple size ball/clevis trailer hitch for the attachment to a hitch receiver of a vehicle, where the trailer hitch may be readily rotated relative to the hitch receiver so that a ball hitch of the required size, or a clevis hitch, is in position to readily receive a socket hitch attached to a trailer or to receive a tang-type hitch attached to the trailer, without having to remove the multiple size ball/clevis trailer hitch from the receiver to rotate it to the proper position.
As is typical in many situations, such as on a farm or at a construction site, a tow vehicle, such as a pickup truck, is used to tow a variety of different trailers. These trailers may have conventional socket-type hitches intended to be installed on a ball-type hitch connected to the tow vehicle. Socket-type hitches are commercially available in a variety of sizes such that it is necessary to have a trailer hitch attached to the vehicle with the correct ball size in order to properly hitch the trailer to the tow vehicle. Three common sizes of balls are, for example, 1⅞″, 2″, or 2 5/16″, but other sizes may be used.
So-called triple ball hitches are known that comprise a main hitch member, typically a square tube, which is adapted to be received in a hitch receiver that is attached to the tow vehicle. The hitch receiver typically has a square opening therein sized to readily receive the main hitch member. A pin secures the main hitch member to the hitch receiver and transmits pulling and braking loads between the tow vehicle and the trailer. Because the opening of the hitch receiver is sized to loosely receive the main hitch member, and because of the generally square shapes of the main hitch member and the receiver, the main hitch member is prevented from rotating relative to the receiver. In such triple ball conventional hitches, another type of a hitch (such as a clevis or a hook hitch) may be provided on a fourth side of the main hitch member, such that another type of a trailer not having a ball hitch may be towed by the tow vehicle.
However, one disadvantage of conventional triple ball hitches has been that it is necessary to completely remove the main hitch member from the receiver to rotate the hitch from one rotary position to another, so as to position the proper sized ball in the proper (or upper position) to receive the socket of the trailer. Not only were such triple ball hitches relatively heavy weighing about 25 pounds (11 kg), thus making them cumbersome to remove from and to re-install in the hitch receiver, but if such a 3 ball hitch was locked to the hitch receiver by installing a lock on the pin securing the 3 ball hitch to the receiver, it was necessary for the user to have a key for the lock in order to change ball sizes. As will be readily appreciated, on a farm or construction site, the driver of the tow vehicle may not have the key for the trailer lock as multiple drivers will often drive the tow vehicle. As such, it often took considerable time for the driver of the tow vehicle to locate the key and then to unlock, remove the main hitch member from the receiver, rotate the 3 ball hitch to the desired position, re-install the main hitch member in the receiver and to re-install the lock. Of course, if a lock was not used, it was possible for an unauthorized person to remove a conventional 3 ball hitch from the tow vehicle.
Thus, there has been a long-standing need for a multiple ball hitch that is received in the hitch receiver and is locked to the receiver of a tow vehicle in the conventional manner, which may be readily rotated relative to the receiver to position the desired hitch ball (or another type of hitch) in position to be hitched to a variety of trailers without the necessity of unlocking or removing the main hitch member from the receiver.